Tuesday, April 17, 2012

Getting Better All The Time: Angels 6, A's 0

Having missed Saturday's clobbering of the Yankees, it seems like I'm only catching the Angels whenever they collapse in front of the opposition. Last night's full-on storming offense — started with Kendrys Morales' three-run homer in the first — felt like a kind of homecoming for a team that has been both literally and figuratively out for a while. Jered Weaver wasn't dominating as you might expect him to be facing a team not expected to be in the top half of offense, but he held them scoreless on five hits while only walking one; and none of them got past second base while he was on the mound.

In fact, the closest the A's got to scoring was in the ninth, when twice Angels infielders botched what should have been game-ending plays; Howie Kendrick and Erick Aybar made successive errors on grounders by Cliff Pennington and Kila Ka'aihue. LaTroy Hawkins bumbled through one more batter, walking Eric Sogard, but finally got Jemile Weeks to strike out on a high fastball.

Outside of his first, Brandon McCarthy actually pitched fairly well, save for plunking Peter Bourjos in the second. You do have to wonder why Bob Melvin stuck with McCarthy in the eighth after giving up a leadoff double to Albert Pujols with Morales, who had homered earlier, up next; but I don't question gifts. The Halos got a couple more runs off Andrew Carignan, someone I had not heard of but who looked like a linebacker converted to the mound, and pitched about as well, too. A fine game for the Angels, who needed one after their really bad start.